First Trip Out On The Birdnest This Year

Fished with Joe and Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 50's and when we quit fishing it was in lower 60's. The water temp is 52 degrees. The wind was out of the east about 7 knots when we started fishing and picked up to about 14 knots when we quit. There was a small chop on the lake when we started and when we quit fishing the waves were 1 to 2 feet. Started fishing the humps on the dumping ground trolling junior thunder sticks set at 55 and 65 feet back. Caught silver bass, not just a few silver bass but a lot of them. Made the move close to Turtle Island fishing in Michigan waters. There was a mud line there so we tried to fish the edge of it. When we first set up we caught a walleye and then we had a long dry spell. Change the length of the leads to 80 and 90 feet but the catching was very tough. Kept 3 walleye and we caught a ton of silver bass, Joe even caught two on one lure.

First Trip of The Year

Fished with Captain Daryl and Tom. Temperature this morning was in the lower 50's and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 50's. The water temp is 53 degrees. When we started fishing the wind was out of the southwest about 10 knots with waves less than a foot. The wind did a slow switch to the east and we went from a flat lake to waves about one foot when we quit fishing. Started fishing at the S-buoy trolling towards the E-buoy with Thunder Sticks set at 55 feet on one side of the boat and 65 feet on the other side of the boat. Made the pass through the dumping grounds and we caught no fish so we pulled lines and headed to the edge of the swamp. Set up here with worms and bottom bouncers set at 40 and 45 feet behind the boards. Trolled around here trying to find some fish and we finally caught a walleye (41 47 350 / 083 23 400) off the 45 foot side with a plastic worm. Couple of minutes later we had another walleye off the 45 foot side with a plastic worm. Made about 4 passes through this area and had no more luck. By this time the wind was out of the east with one foot waves. Switched to wiggle warts and we caught one more walleye and then we called it a day. Went to Trappers and had a walleye dinner and everyone was happy.

Trout Fishing 2016

Opening day of trout fishing had us fishing at Spring Mill Pond. I watched Joe and John fish. We have been going up north for the opening day of trout fishing and had a trout camp since 1980. Camping on the river, catching and eating fish and having a great time. This year I tore the rotator cuff in my right shoulder (twice), so going up north was out of the question. We decided to stay local and do a one day trip close to home. Temperature this morning was in the lower 40's with the wind out of the northeast about 10 knots. They used wax worms and shiners casting out into the lake with a bobber. We fished the west side of the lake and the catching was pretty slow. Caught some small bluegill and a couple of bass that we put back. Joe finally caught the only trout of the day and it was a nice one. It was a 19 inch brown trout. We went back to John's house, cleaned the fish and had corn, potatoes and grilled trout for dinner. It's not the same as our usual trout camp but at least we made it fishing together. And yes, Joe is the Trout King for 2016 with the 19 inch brown trout.

Pretty Good Bite Today

Fished with Joe and Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 50's and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 50's. The wind was out of the west northwest 7 to 15 knots with waves less than a foot. The water temp is 57 Degrees. The wind chill was cold in the morning but around 10:00 am it started to warm up. Turned out to be a great day on the lake. We bought our bait at Anglers Landing and again they had emerald shiners from Wisconsin that were really nice. When we came out of the harbor the lake looked pretty clean so we headed for the swamp. We set up in the same spot that we fished the last time we were in the swamp in 10 feet of water. Had some nice marks on the graph so things were looking good. Started catching a few fish right out of the gate and the catching was just steady. We were keeping some nice fish so we just stayed put for the rest of the trip. We would have a flurry of bites and then it would quit for a few minutes. Finished the day with 110 perch with the largest one measuring just over 11 inches. Caught only three white perch and no small walleye today.

A little Better Than Yesterday

Fished With Joe and Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60's when we started fishing and it was in the lower 70's when we quit fishing. The wind was switching from the northwest to the southwest less than 10 knots with a little chop on the lake. The water temp is 60 degrees. The water cleaned up a lot from yesterday. We picked up our bait from Anglers Landing and they had nice shiners again that were trucked in from Wisconsin. Started fishing in our old spot in front of Brest Bay and there was a pack of boats when we arrived. We hung around here for a little while and we only caught a couple of small perch. Decided to head to Sputnik and we set up just north of Sputnik in 28 feet of water. Started to catch some nice fish but the action was pretty slow. I did not feel like moving again so we just stayed put and picked away at the perch. By the time we quit fishing there was a pack of boats around us. Kept 50 perch and the largest one was 10 1/2 inches. We also caught seven small walleye between 6 and 8 inches. When we were coming back to the harbor there was a large pack of boats around the W Buoy.

Fishing After the Big Blow

Fished with Captain Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 60's. The wind when we started fishing was out of the northeast 10 to 14 knots with waves around two feet. By the time we quit fishing the wind was switching and the waves were laying down, and we quit fishing fairly early. The water temp is 58 degrees. Made the ride into the swamp and the water is very dirty. We rode around and tried to mark some fish but we could not find any. Left there and headed out in front of TBM and setup and fished by Huey. Had no bites here so we moved again out to the E Buoy. Caught a hand full of white perch and a couple of small perch. Things were not looking very good in this part of the Lake Erie so we went and gassed up Daryl's boat and winterized it. We just had a major blow out of the east for the last 5 days and the lake is pretty torn up. We saw a 55 gallon drum floating and a few logs. Hopefully some calm weather will clear the lake up.

Fishing the Swamp

Fished with Joe and Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the upper 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 60's. The cold front was just starting to come through when we quit fishing. The wind was very light out of the northwest and we had no waves. We had to fish in a little drizzle a couple of times and one time it rained for about 15 minutes but besides that the weather was pretty nice.The water temp is 71 degrees. Started fishing in the swamp in 10 feet of water about a quarter mile off Woodtick Peninsula ( 41 46 950 / 083 26 350) and we never moved. Had to sort through a lot of fish but we kept some nice perch. Kept 63 perch between 8 and 10 1/2 inches and we also caught 3 walleye from this years hatch that were almost 7 inches. Looks like the rest of the perch fishing will be in the swamp.

A Tough One Today

Fished with Catfish Joe. Temperature this morning was in the upper 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 80's. Hard to believe for this time of year. The wind in the morning was out of the south around 12 knots with waves 1 to 2 feet and by the time we quit fishing it was not even blowing. The water temp is 71 degrees. Started fishing where we have been and we caught a whole lot of small perch, we call them smerch. Made a couple of moves around here and the catching never got better. Made the move out to Sputnik and we started to catch some perch but the catching was very slow. Made a move to the turn around buoy and we had the same results. Made a few more moves in this area and then we called it quits. Put a lot of miles on the boat for just a few fish. Kept 22 perch between 7 3/4 and 11 inches. Oh, did I mention that Joe caught 3 catfish today, his personal best.

The Perch are Still There

Fished with Captain Daryl and Joe. Temperature this morning was in the upper 50's and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 70's. The wind was out of the East 10 to 17 knots. The waves when we started fishing were about 2 feet and by the time we were done fishing they were 2 to 4 feet. The water temp is 68 Degrees. We picked up our bait at Anglers Landing because they had a truck load of emerald shiners shipped in from Wisconsin. Why we cannot get shiners from around here I don't know. We went back to the same place we fished yesterday and had the same results. We kept 71 perch and all but one of them were between 8 and 10 inches. The largest one was 11 inches. Joe also caught a 7 inch walleye. Speaking of walleye, the Ohio DNR finished their summer trawls on the western basin on Lake Erie and it's good news. This will be the best walleye hatch since 2003.

Perch in the Bay

Fished with Captain Daryl, Mark and Joe. Temperature this morning was in the upper 50's when we started fishing and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 70's. Just great weather for this time of year. The wind was out of the northeast 8 to 12 knots with waves around a foot. The water temp is 68 Degrees. We bought our bait at Anglers Point and we got the last that they had. Started fishing out of Brest Bay (41 52 860 / 083 13 480 ) in 26 feet of water and we never had to move, which makes for a great perch trip. The bite was not steady but just good enough to keep us put. We caught mostly perch that we had to sort through and we caught just a few junk fish. Kept 109 perch between 8 and 10 inches. After we cleaned the fish Joe and I went to Trappers for a fresh perch dinner. That's the best way to end a fishing trip.

Still Struggling

Fished with Joe. Temperature this morning was in the upper 50's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower lower 70's. The water temp is 68 Degrees. The wind was out of the northeast 5 to 10 knots with waves 1 to 2 feet. The lake was bumpy because of the east winds yesterday and last night. Started fishing on the west side of the W Buoy and we only caught a couple of small perch. Made one move here and we still had no luck. Started heading East hoping to find some clean water and we saw a pack of boats in front of Bolles Harbor. Stopped to fish here and we caught a couple of small perch. Made the long run to the turn around buoy and we started to catch some perch. The catching was slow and the fish were not very large but at least we were keeping some perch. After catching enough small perch we decided to try and find some larger fish knowing that you should never leave fish to find fish. We stopped by Sputnik and fished for a while with no luck so we headed towards a pack of boats by buoys 5 and 6. We were watching the boats around us and they were not catching any fish. We only caught a few small perch so we moved towards an old perch way point from 2013 and set up. Again we only caught throw back perch so we called it a day. Kept 38 perch and most of them were around 8 inches.

Perch Fishing

Fished with Joe. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 70's. Stopped at Joe's Bait store and bought our minnows. They had shiners but they were very small ones, actually too small for perch fishing.  The wind was out of the south southwest 12 to 17 knots with waves 1 to 3 feet. Because of the lake conditions we decided to head south and fish Maumee Bay. We started fishing just the other side of buoys 23 and 24 in 14 feet of water. We were on the fish right our of the gate but they were all small fish. Made 4 moves in this area and we could not get away from the small perch. We would catch a few keepers but not enough to stay put. Made another move to the radar buoy and we caught a couple of keepers but again, a lot of small perch. Decided to run out to the gravel pit and we only caught small perch. Made a move into the swamp and again we caught small perch. Made 3 more moves in the swamp and then we called it quits for the day. Kept 16 perch and we had no large ones. Around 10:00 am the wind started to lay down and the waves were less than a foot.

The Start of Perch Season

Fished with Joe. Temperature this morning was in the lower 70's and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 70's. When we got back to shore the temp was in the upper 80's. We had a nasty storm come out of the west and when it hit Lake Erie it went south and followed the shore line so we missed the storm but we had the wind effects. The wind was out of the southwest 5 to 15 knots with waves between 1 and 2 feet. The water temp is 75 degrees. Started fishing by the number 1 Buoy off the River Raisin Channel. We were catching some perch but not enough to keep us happy. Started moving towards Brest Bay and we had no luck. After 3 or 4 moves we went back to the River Raisin Buoys. The catching was slow but at least we were on some perch. We were fishing and watching the storm knowing it was going around us. Kept 47 perch and most of them were around 8 inches with the largest measuring 11 inches. We went to Lake Erie Party Store but they were not open so we bought our bait at Rose Harbor Marina and they had golden shiners. Not the best shiner but better than most of the other bait stores in the area.

The Return From Salmon Fishing

Fished with Joe and Daryl. Temperature when we started fishing was in the middle 70's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 80's. The wind was out of the north 10 to 14 knots with waves 1 to 2 feet. The water temp is 75 Degrees. We were taking the boat back to Toledo Beach Marina after our return from salmon fishing in Manistee, Mi. The boat had been sitting in my driveway for 5 days while I did some minor work on it and it was time to take it back to the marina. I heard a report that they were catching some walleye by the E Buoy so I figured we would try walleye fishing one last time. We set up just short of the E Buoy trolling wiggle warts set at 90 feet back and junior thunder sticks set at 70 feet back. We were marking some fish close to the bottom but we had no takers. After trolling around for a little bit we noticed that there were some weeds on the lures. Started pulling lines and all the poles had weeds on them. It was still early so we made the move towards Sputnik. Set up trolling wiggle warts set at 120 feet back. Again, we were marking fish but now they were too deep for the wiggle warts. Fished here for just a little while and we called it quits. We did not catch a fish today. Packed up all the walleye gear and now we are set up for perch fishing.

Salmon Fishing in Manistee, Michigan 2015

Fished with Joe and John. We left Saturday morning and picked up the boat in Hart, MI,  where we left it after we were done fishing in Pentwater. This year will be remembered because of the very strong winds we had on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday morning. Of all the years of salmon fishing this was our worst for weather. We were able to fish 8 of the possible 13 trips and one of those was cut short and another was in four foot seas. We were never skunked on any trip but we never caught more than 3 fish on any trip. Our largest salmon was 18 lbs, and our smallest was 14 lbs. One day we would get all our bites on meat rigs and the next day all the bites would be on J plugs. Very hard to figure out. The last couple of years it seems that you have one good day to catch a lot of fish and this year it was Tuesday morning. Boats were netting fish all around us but we came back with only one salmon. We switched lures, changed the depth on the baits and changed the speed we were trolling, but nothing worked. We kept 12 salmon for the entire trip and caught one lake trout that we put back.

Fishing at Pentwater

Fished with Joe and Daryl out of the Port of Pentwater. We headed up Sunday morning and came home on Wednesday. We docked the boat at the Municipal Marina and we stayed at the Pine Motel (not recommended ).Tuesday was the only bad day we had for fishing. We quit fishing at 7:30 in the morning and we did not make it out for the evening fish because of the small craft warnings. We fished one evening in front of the harbor because of the wind and waves. The rest of the trip we were fishing south of the harbor in front of the Silver Lake Sand Dunes, about a 10 mile boat ride. The majority of the fishing was in waters 90 to 150 feet deep, fishing anywhere from 40 to 90 feet down with the bait. Cut bait rigs caught most of the fish and one fish came off the Scar Pace lure. We had a couple of nice fish on that we lost. One straightened the split ring that is on the snap swivel and the other one straightened the clip on the snap swivel. We kept 6 king salmon and 5 steelhead and put back two lake trout. The largest king was about 14 pounds and the largest steelhead was just over 13 pounds. It was nice fishing out of Pentwater but it's always hard fishing a new port for the first time.

The Wind Was Blowing Pretty Good

 Fished with Joe and Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the upper 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the upper 80's. The wind was out of the west northwest 15 to 20 knots when we started fishing.  About 9:00 am it laid down to 8 to 12 knots. Around 10:30 am it started to blow again 14 to 18 knots. The waves were anywhere from 2 feet to about a foot but the wind made for tough fishing. The water temp is 76 Degrees. Started fishing just short of the S-Buoy trolling wiggle warts set at 75 feet back and large dipsy's and spoons set at 30 feet back. We were on the fish right out of the gate but the crew was not ready. We lost 3 of the first 4 walleye we had on. Not a good start for a windy day. We trolled mostly between the S-Buoy and the C-Buoy. We caught more junk fish today than we have in the last two weeks and we even caught some white perch. The catching was good up until 10:30 am, after that, we could not catch a keeper walleye. We spent at least 1 1/2 hours trying to catch the last couple of walleye but it was not going to happen. Kept 16 walleye and 2 perch.

Had to Work for Them

Fished with Captain Daryl, Mark and Joe. Temperature this morning was in the upper 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 80's. The wind was out of the northeast 7 to 13 knots with waves less than 2 feet. The water temp is 74 degrees. Started fishing right in front of the harbor in 14 feet of water trolling wiggle warts set at 35 feet behind the boards. Caught a couple of walleye but we also caught a lot of junk fish so we started trolling towards deeper water. Ended up by the S-Buoy trolling with wiggle warts set at 65 feet back on one side of the boat and 75 feet back on the other side of the boat. Eventually both sides were set to 75 feet back. We also ran a couple of large dipsy's set at 30 and 35 feet back and they caught a few walleye. Had a lot of tangles today, don't know if it was the wind or the waves or something else. Kept 24 walleye and we lost quite a few walleye behind the boat.

Quick Trip Today

Fished with Daryl. Temperature this morning was in the lower 70's and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 70's. The wind was out of the northwest less than 8 knots with a little chop on the lake. The water temp is 74 degrees. Started fishing in the same location with the same program and the walleye are still there. We were on and off the lake very quick today. Kept 12 walleye on an easy day of fishing.

Tried For a Combo Today

Fished with Joe. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60's and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 80's. The wind was light and variable with no waves. The water temp is 74 degrees. Don't know why but we had no flies and no gnats today. Started perch fishing by the W-Buoy and we picked up a couple of small ones so after 45 minutes of perch fishing we went walleye fishing. We set up by the S Buoy trolling towards the C-Buoy (41 48 250 / 083 21 500) in 16 feet of water with wiggle warts set at 75 feet behind the boards. We were on the fish right out of the gate and the catching never slowed down. We decided to put back the small keeper fish (15 to 16 inches) and only keep the good size eaters. It did not take long and we were back to perch fishing. Tried perch fishing by the C-Buoy and we only caught one small perch. Moved to an old way point from two years ago in the dumping grounds and we only caught small perch. Made one more move back to the W-Buoy and we only caught a couple of small perch so we called it a day. We cleaned up the fish and went to Trapper's for a walleye/perch lunch and it was awesome. Kept 12 walleye and 7 small perch. Decided that doing a perch/walleye combo is just too much, so it might not happen again.